Leonard Pittman was a Robloxian football player and head coach in the RFL. He was notable for being the head coach for the Retropolis Redman between 1947 to 1968, with a two-season break during the 1960 and 1961 seasons.
Biography
Early Life
Pittman was born and raised in Clover City, Eastern Robloxia on January 27, 1904. His mother, Elizabeth Pittman, was a stay at home mom, while his father Gilbert was a professor at the University of Eastern Robloxia. Leonard was not the best kid growing up, as when he was only six years old, he called an Bloxveldian Robloxian a racial slur after learning it from some of his father‘s friends. Between six years old and college, he would continue to behave recklessly, but despite his reckless behavior, he was able to graduate from elementary school, middle school, and high school, and he was not even expelled in those schools. For college, he went to the University of Robloxia, where he was expelled for the first time in his educational history due to reckless behavior. In 1920, the RPFA was formed (which was soon to become the Robloxian Football League [RFL] ). Since Leonard began to watch college Robloxian football, which before the RPFA was formed, was dominating the sport as a whole, Leonard chose to join the sport instead of continuing his college career and would end up signing with the Clover City Hawks. Since the RPFA was just established when Leonard signed for the Hawks, many RPFA teams would end up having player shortages. Therefore, some teams would offer contracts to men that looked built for the sport, like Leonard, who at the time was signed was weighing at 214 pounds and his height being 5’11, which in today’s standards, is the perfect weight in height for a quarterback (QB) like Leonard.
Robloxian Football Life
While Leonard’s stats as a Robloxian football player were not recorded, many players later on who played against him would argue that he was not the easiest to play with, especially if he was their opponent. In June 1924, the team that Leonard was playing, the Clover City Hawks, went defunct, recently having declaring bankruptcy (the exact chapter it was declared was unknown). Later in the month, they would go out of business despite now being a team under the RFL. All of this occurred just three months before the 1924-1925 season began. Despite the financial difficulties associated with his former team, Leonard continued to prove to be a successful QB in the league and would end up signing with the New Blockers City Pumas in August of 1924, just three weeks before the start of the season. He would end up being with the team until the 1927 season, when he would end up with a dislocated left leg. Doctors during that time said that he has a 3% chance of ever playing Robloxian football again. The injury devastated him, causing him to be depressed, and he would, despite Prohibition, end up starting to drink, turning into a full blown addiction later in his life, but fortunately quit before he entered the RFL again.
Depression Life and his Second Football Life:
By 1928, The Great Depression was emerging from around the corner, and when the Great Depression was in full swing, banks in Robloxia were failing, as well as millions of Robloxians, including Leonard, were becoming unemployed. Not even the RFL was immune from the economic collapse; during that time alone, a lot of RFL teams, including his RFL team in 1930, would end up declaring bankruptcy and going out of business. His favorite team going out of business meant that he was now unemployed. He would end up moving to New Blockers City, which during the Great Depression, was one of the best cities for job opportunities in Robloxia. He would end up finding a job as a taxi driver, and during this time, the city population was skyrocketing. As he took passengers on more rides, he made more money. Soon, the Great Depression was slowly coming to an end as more job opportunities started to emerge. Eventually, an opportunity in the form of an RFL franchise came in 1939 when it was formed. The New Bloxia Knights were formed in November 1939 as a result of this franchise being created (the team still exists today). The city was excited as it never had a professional Robloxian football team for nearly a decade. Leonard was excited of the new team and would go to almost every single game for the Bears in 1939. For the games that he did not go to, he would just listen to the game on the radio. The next year, in 1940, the General Manager of the Bears, Cliff McFarland, recognized Leonard in the stands at one the game that season. Cliff would go up to him and ask if he was Leonard Pittman. Leonard responded, "yes I am, how did you know?" Cliff said that he played with the Hawks in 1923. The two men would end up having a conversation, and the next day, Cliff would call him and say to Leonard, "hey Leonard it’s me Cliff you want to help are quarterback?" Leonard would respond saying "fuck yeah".
Life As a New Blockers City Bear
Leonard would show up at the team’s practice facility and helped the starting QB John Hays. Right after Leonard came in and helped John, he played like a completely different person. His first game, with the help of Leonard, was eclectic. While stats like yards we’re not recorded carefully around this time, touchdowns were easy to record. John scored four total touchdowns that game. When a reporter asked him, “how did you play so differently and well”, John said “Leonard Pittman”. John’s answer in today’s words went viral around the sports world, and Leonard’s name slowly became a household name game after game for how well John’s quarterback was. He was improving to the point that the GM Cliff McFarland would address the help Leonard was getting to John. A reporter asked him for his opinion on Leonard. Cliff mentioned that “he is a positive guy he will take as much time to complete his goals and he is a very passionate guy and he did exactly that with help our quarterback John hays and if I’m in a situation where I need someone to help my quarterback and it can be another quarterback give me Leonard Pittman anytime”. This response made Leonard a guy that can help struggling quarterback’s like John Hays and this level of popularity would help image as a quarterback helper in the future.
As a Roblox War 2 Soldier:
In 1942, the next month after the December 7, 1941 attack on Island Town by Neo-Japan that will forever live in infamy, Robloxia officially entered Roblox War 2 and began to undergo a drafting process. Leonard alone with many other players would end up being drafted. It is unknown what theater he was sent to. During the war, in one fateful day on October 1943, Leonard was shot in the upper leg in a battle field. He was unable to battle, but he was able to make some progress defeating the Axis Power at that time, therefore, he was honorably discharged and sent back home in New Blockers City, where he had to wait until Roblox War 2 ended with the atomic bombing of Nagablocksi and Blockshima due to an ongoing player shortage due to the draft.
Life As a New Blockers City Bear Part 2:
Once the player shortage is over, he continued his QB coach job with the Bears for one last season in the 1945-1946 season before the Retropolis Redman offered him a offensive coaching job. The offensive coaching job only lasted a full season, but the team finished with a disappointing 5-9 record which ended up causing the head coach Mike Wilkos to be fired. The General Manager Gino Douglass made a risky decision to promote Leonard as head coach.
As a Head Coach of the Retropolis Redmen:
Some were excited that he was going to improve the team's offense, while others had major concerns regarding how he was going to operate the defense as he had never coached the defense in his entire football career. Under his first season, the team had another disappointing record: 4-10. To compound the disappointment, the quarterback of the team was injured to the point where the majority of the season had no quarterback signed for the team. However, despite the initial disappointing setback, the season would be the beginning of a new era for not just the Redmans, but also for Leonard for his career. They would end up making to the playoffs with a 10-4 record in back to back seasons in 1948 and 1949 respectively. However, in the 1950 season, they would dwarf the accomplishments they made in the previous two reasons when they would win their first championship in franchise history, while beating their previous 10-4 record with a 12-2 record. In 1951, the franchise’s 9-5 season, while a setback from the previous season, still rendered them eligible for the playoffs. The team would be ineligible for the playoffs in the 1952 season; for the next six seasons including 1952's, they were simply first-round exits. Leonard’s team would once again win championships in the 1958 and 1963 seasons.
The RFL then proceeded to establish the Evolution Series, with the name of the trophy being the Leonard Pittman Trophy (which was unnamed for two years since being established). The RFL was interviewed on how the trophy was named. They said Leonard Pittman was the head coach of the team that won the first two Evolution Series. In 1960, he would leave from the Redmen and help other teams win the Evolution Series for two years before coming back for the 1962 season. He would end up making playoff appearances with his team until his last season as a head coach in the RFL in 1968. He took a season-long break in 1969. In 1970, he announced his retirement from football as a head coach and would spend his life until 1974 taking another break from football.
As a commentator and death:
He would later find his job as an football commentator between 1974 and 1978, when he retired as a commentator. He would live a private life until he passed away on May 18, 1990, at the age of 86, in his mansion outside of New Blockers City that he brought with his money made from being a quarterback and head coach. Autopsies revealed that he died of a heart attack, but some autopsies revealed that he died of liver cirrhosis as a consequence of his long alcohol addiction that he had during the Great Depression. A quarterback of his with the Redmans, Seth Mathews, who played with the team between 1959-1969 said in a interview that “he would have a whole bar in his mansion and I told him man with amount of alcohol you have you ought to start a bar, and he drunk a pack of beer in one nigh when I would visit him in his mansion”.
Legacy:
He is often considered as one of the greatest quarterback coaches and head coaches of all time, as he had won four EV championships and ten Head Coach of the year awards. He will be forever known as the man who became from a quarterback helper to one help to one of the greatest coaches in RFL history.
The year before his death, he would be inducted into the professional football Hall of Fame in 1989.